Volume 10 | Issue 10 | Number 3 | Article ID 3704 | Feb 27, 2012 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake: A Report from One Miyagi Fishing Community 震災後の生活：宮城県七ヶ浜より Alyne Elizabeth Delaney Life After the Great East Japan friends. I, myself, have been visiting Earthquake: A Report from One Shichigahama for over 20 years; my first interviews with fishing cooperative members Miyagi Fishing Community took place in the autumn of 1991.1 It is my Alyne Elizabeth Delaney hope that such a long history in the community can help provide a view of the recovery with Introduction some depth of understanding of the relationships and networks which are needed at such a time. Shichigahama Shichigahama (population 20,396)2 is the smallest town (13km2) in Miyagi Prefecture. Entrepreneurship is high with many householders working in occupations related to the fisheries, as would be expected in a coastal community, such as in the catching and aquaculture sectors, owning stalls in the nearby fish market in Shiogama, as well as in ancillary industries and farming. The coastal neighborhoods are populated by long-standing Hanabuchihama Port, pre-tsunami residents many of whom are fishers, farmers, and the self-employed, while the inner part of There are as many stories to be told about the the town has filled in the last few years with th March 11 tsunami in Japan and its aftermath ‘bedtowns’ for city commuters for the as there are people in the region. Many of neighboring cities of Sendai, Tagajō, and these stories are poignant; some areShiogama heartwarming; most are overwhelming. Videos taken of the event, and interviews with survivors afterward, still have the power to bring tears to one’s eyes. The event also had a significant impact on a great number of people outside of Japan, including many of us who contributed to this issue: researchers who have spent a great number of years living and working with informants, many of whom are counted as close 1 10 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF was not high enough. “I yelled for everyone to run, to run away higher up the hill. But no one moved. Not one. They just stood still.” Her brother and father were caught up in the waves outside her home while her mother was trapped in the house with the wave almost reaching the ceiling of the room she was in. Thankfully, they survived. Some of their neighbors, however, did not. In looking at Shichigahama and the rest of coastal Miyagi, statistics, though they are mere numbers, can strike you quite forcefully. In Shichigahama, over 90% of the farmland land was inundated by seawater. All of the ports were damaged in some way such as through the destruction of seawalls or the sinking of land, leaving parts of some ports perpetually Jomon pots, end of the Middle Jomon underwater. 3,740 homes were damaged or Period, Daigigakoika Museum destroyed, 916 of these largely or completely. Nearly a quarter of the population lived in The town is known for its long, sandy beaches shelters immediately after the tsunami. After and beautiful views of islands of theseven months, only 1,267 were living in Matsushima Bay, which forms the town’s temporary housing in Shichigahama with north/northwestern border. The town is also another 743 living outside of the town in home to the Kokusai-mura (International temporary apartments (Shichigahama Town Village, a culture center) as well as a small Hall 2011a). archeological museum with artifacts from one of the largest Jomon Period shell mounds in all of Japan. Given the geographic characteristics of the town, some neighborhoods were relatively untouched by the tsunami while other areas were completely wiped out. Most of the populace was able to seek shelter upon the numerous, steep, pine-covered hills, in the center of town and at officially designated evacuation points. Not all evacuation centers were safe, however. Given that the tsunami height in Shichigahama was 12.1 meters with 3 the waves extending inland two kilometers, Overlooking a Shichigahama neighborhood some designated emergency evacuation points destroyed in the tsunami. Note that the were overrun by the waves. As one resident entire area has been cleaned down to the watched the waves destroy the neighborhood house foundations. below her own evacuation meeting point (see photo below), she realized the hill they were on According to the most recent official statistics 2 10 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF (Shichigahama Town Hall 2011a), 70 people the 1896 Meiji Sanriku quake, and the 896 died within the borders of Shichigahama in the Sanriku quake. The 1896 Sanriku quake, for tsunami. 59 of these were residents, nine were example, “was responsible for an enormous outsiders who happened to be in the town at disaster” (Noh 1966: 1) in the northern and the time of the tsunami, and two remain central Sanriku area where 23% of the unidentified. In addition, another 32 residents population of the coastal counties died, over died in the tsunami outside of Shichigahama. 23,000 people in total (Noh 1966). In Five more remain missing and are presumed comparison, according to the National Police dead. What strikes me forcefully in reading the Agency of Japan, the official dead and missing list of the dead and missing, was their ages: the from the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, oldest victim was 101 years old;4 the youngest 2011 stand at 19,137 people, with an additional was less than a year. One lived a century, only 6,011 injured. to die in the tsunami while others had their entire lives ahead of them, perhaps even a Consequently, tsunami are well known in the century of life ahead. In studying the list of area and planned for such as through annual dead and missing, more than a third of those tsunami drills and the building of sea walls. who died were from the ShobutahamaEach time I visited the community, many neighborhood alone. In looking at the overall people spoke of the Chile earthquake and breakdown, the ages of deaths form a bell tsunami of 1960. One Fishery Cooperative curve with almost half of the deaths coming Association (FCA) member often recalled how, from those in their 60s and 70s. as a teenager, he carried his grandmother on his back to a hill for safety, running back to save his precious drafting pencils. On the anniversary each year, Shichigahama tsunami sirens blare as a warning. As a fieldworker, I also took part in the annual disaster drill where residents practiced putting out fires, rescuing people from damaged cars and buildings, and learned first aid. In reviewing notes from my original field visits in 1991, I found photos where the seawalls were still being built in some of the smaller Buddhist monks performing a ceremony ports, walls which were set (according to (hama o-bon) for the souls of those who conventional wisdom) to the height of the last have died by drowning. Held every August deadly tsunami (1960). Despite the walls, 20th. many people lost their lives, their relatives and families, their homes and their jobs. The Event Fishers The earthquake of March 11th was one of the strongest ever recorded in the world and the strongest in Japan. Nevertheless, historical records show a number of massive earthquakes and tsunami in the region throughout recorded history. Some of the most powerful previous quakes included the 1933 Sanriku earthquake, 3 10 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF households in Shichigahama are working this season (September through April) and these are only able to work since they had seeded nets in freezers which survived the disaster. Some areas in Miyagi have received donations in the form of boats and seed stock (e.g. wakame and oyster) to help them begin again. Yet, even when boats or gear are available, the huge amount of debris in the waters can make work difficult and dangerous. Drifting nets and rafts used for cultivation were swept away by The Toguhama neighborhood port,the tsunami making operating motor boats a perpetually submerged due to subsidence struggle; entangled ropes and wires make post-tsunami activities such as trawling dangerous. Professional divers are working to clear The fishing industry in Miyagi prefecture was underwater debris at the main ports, such as in one of the most important in Japan. The Rikuzen Takata. These divers say they Sanriku coast location of Miyagi, precisely sometimes come across clothes of what they where the warm Kuroshio current from the believe to be the remains of the dead (personal south and the cold Oyashio current from the communication, Dr. Johannes Wilhelm). For north cross, make these waters rich in marine this reason, some people in the area currently resources. Another specific feature in Miyagi’s refrain from eating sea urchin or eel because coastal waters is the divide in coastal fisheries they are carnivorous (and would have fed on between the sandy bottom south ofthe tsunami dead). Shichigahama and the rocky shore to the north, which is well-suited for marine cultivation including seaweeds (especiallynori and wakame), oyster, sea squirt and scallop. Unlike earlier Sanriku quakes, this time Miyagi fishers faced the greatest direct damage5 from the tsunami compared to Iwate, Fukushima, and Ibaraki Prefectures. According to the Fishery Agency (2011:11), 90% of fishing vessels were lost in Miyagi,6 6041 FCA members’ homes were damaged or destroyed (60%), and 452 members of JF Miyagi (the Prefectural Fishing Cooperative) are missing or dead. The aquaculture subgroup was also hit hard: 57,886 rafts for aquaculture were washed away or destroyed and all aquaculture facilities for seaweed (especially nori and wakame), oyster, sea squirt and scallop in the prefecture were completely destroyed (Funato 2011:11).